MADRID, August 17 (RIA Novosti) – The participants of a conference devoted to the combating fascism in Ukraine, held in the Spanish city of Gijón, expressed their support to missing Rossiya Segodnya photographer Andrei Stenin (#freeAndrew).
The conference was organized by the Asturian solidarity committee of anti-fascist resistance in Ukraine. Among the participants were members of Russia’s Essence of Time movement, witnesses of the May 2014 Odessa tragedy and all those who want to learn more about the current situation in southeastern Ukraine.
According to the coordinator Vera Rodionova, the main aim of the event was to show “the real situation in Ukraine’s southeast,” as well as “all the crimes of the current Ukrainian authorities in their true colors.”
The Essence of Time activists are planning similar events in a number of Spanish cities and other European countries. In particular, a campaign to support the combat against fascism in Ukraine will be launched in Madrid’s central square Puerta del Sol, as well as in the cities of Berlin, Vienne and Geneva on September 2.
Since August 5, authorities have been unable to reach Stenin, who had been working in eastern Ukraine. On August 12, Anton Herashchenko, an aide to the Ukrainian interior minister, said in an interview with Latvian radio station Baltkom that Stenin had been arrested by the Ukrainian Security Service on charges of assisting terrorists.
Later Herashchenko claimed he was misinterpreted saying he only assumed the photographer had been detained but disclosed no precise information. Baltkom said it had a recording of Herashchenko’s interview and provided it to Rossiya Segodnya.
Russia has already filed two diplomatic notes to Ukraine over Stenin’s case urging Kiev to comment on Herashchenko’s statement but his location still remains unknown. The photographer is now on the Ukrainian militia’s missing persons list, Herashchenko said on Saturday.
Please support Andrei Stenin’s release by sharing the hashtag #FreeAndrew in social networks. Andrei is a professional war photographer reporting from the most dangerous war zones in the world. You can view Andrei’s pictures from Iraq, Egypt, Syria, Libya here and his most recent shots from eastern Ukraine here.
